RALEIGH -- It's been a quiet summer at the amusement area of Pullen Park.
Behind the temporary fence that keeps everyone out, the playground equipment has been removed, the lake has been drained, and the century-old carousel has been dismantled and some of its parts sent to Ohio for their first major rehab work in 90 years.
Soon, though, the city will award a contract that will shift the renovation of the amusement area into high gear. When it reopens in September next year, the park will have a new welcome center, a new concession building, new restrooms, new playground equipment and a new depot for the train ride.
The carousel will be back as well, inside a new, larger, climate-controlled building big enough that visitors can stand inside while they wait their turns or watch others ride.
New lighting at the carousel and throughout the amusement area will allow the city to keep the park open longer on summer evenings.
Seven companies have put in bids on the Pullen Park project, five within the city's $6 million budget, financed mostly from a parks bond issue approved in 2003. The City Council could approve a contract as soon as next week.
It's the first major renovation in 35 years for Pullen, which dates back to 1887 when Richard Stanhope Pullen donated an old cow pasture to the city for use as a public park, the state's first. The park's rides, shaded picnic tables and flower-lined walkways have drawn generations of Raleigh residents.
Today, the amusement area looks abandoned - empty and overgrown as it awaits its makeover. As David Shouse, senior parks planner for the city, shows a visitor around, he points to vestiges of the park's long history, including the field behind the concession stand where the old outdoor swimming pool still lies buried under the grass.
The carousel has remained a constant since 1921, when it and the wooden building that houses it were moved from Bloomsbury Park, a private amusement park developed by Carolina Power and Light Co in 1912. The machine was built by the Dentzel Carousel Co. of Pennsylvania and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.
Carousel's care
For the past several years, the city has removed the painted basswood animals a few at a time for restoration, but this is the first time the carousel itself has been dismantled, cleaned and retooled since it arrived at Pullen.
"Our goal and our hope is that when our grandchildren are coming to this park - or even our grandchildren's children - that the carousel is still going to be running in the shape that it's in today," said Richard Costello, director of lakes and amusements for the city parks department.
Todd Goings, whose Ohio company is restoring the carousel, said the biggest surprise so far is what good shape everything is in.
"There's not too many pieces of equipment out there that are 100 years old and we're asking it to do the same thing it did when it came out of the factory," Goings said. "It's really a tribute to the guys who originally designed and built these things."
The carousel's Wurlitzer organ, which also dates to the early 20th century, will be shipped to Maryland, where it will get a tune up and refurbishing. When it returns to the new carousel building, it will have a new place of prominence in an alcove.
Train, boats and cars
Pullen's miniature train ride, pulled by a one-third size replica of a real locomotive built in 1863, will remain, though it is getting a new tunnel, where the train is stored at night and which also serves as the designated storm shelter. The big red caboose also stays, as does the kiddie boat ride, which dates to the 1960s.
Howell Lake, named for the park's first superintendent, will be refilled, after the city stabilizes the shoreline. The lake had not been drained since the 1970s, but it yielded few treasures: cell phones, earrings, a skateboard. "There could be some wedding rings there that we didn't find," said Shouse, the parks planner.
Long-range plans for Pullen Park call for a new community center and perhaps a parking deck, but there's no money for that now. City officials hope that longer hours will spread out crowds a bit, but parking is likely to remain tight.
"It's a challenge for parking," Shouse said. "We recognize that."
